Ed Cullens Attic Salt

“Attic Salt” column for Dec. 2, 2012

Sunlight from the shank of a gorgeous day was streaming through the window as a message from the front arrived, the holiday front where festive consumer-soldiers were digging in for Thanksgiving.

A friend had left her quiet home on a lovely rural road in West Feliciana Parish to grocery shop.

Her email reported young shoppers looking dazed and confused, wandering the aisles as though on their first trip to a supermarket.

Do they not shop for food the rest of the year? Do they eat out three times a day? Were they home playing video games instead of learning to shop with their mothers and fathers?

My friend described teenagers drifting through the aisles, cellphone in hand. Their mothers had sent them to the store for some forgotten, key ingredient.

She heard one large child report that he was looking at cans before heading to the baking aisle to inquire, “What did you say you needed there?” Long pause. “Is cornstarch the same as flour?”

Cellphones are wonderful tools as long as there’s someone on one end providing useful information.

These lovely fall days, it’s easy to be distracted by the voice of Andy Williams warming the chilly air of supermarkets and big box stores.

We know Christmas grows near when we read of the first injunction sought against a public crèche or hear a talking head on television offer advice on how to avoid fist fights at the holiday table.

At some point in the national discourse, we stopped observing holidays as depicted in the paintings of Norman Rockwell. We began regarding the holidays, a.k.a. Thanksgiving and Christmas, as seen through the eyes of Dr. Phil’s television show guests.

This morning, a caller was foaming at the radio about people saying “the holidays” instead of “Christmas.”